Friday, April 1, 2016

FINGERS OF DEATH

FINGERS OF DEATH, first published in March, 1933, was the 25th Shadow adventure. The paperback reprint (pictured above), was published in September, 1977. The fantastic cover art is by the legendary Jim Steranko. I finished reading this one the other night and it's a good one.

The death of a wealthy businessman in the small town of Holmsford leads to a series of gruesome murders, all committed by mysterious "fingers of death". Each of the victims is a prominent businessman and as the plot progresses, we learn that they were all part of a conspiracy to hide a cache of stolen money. The hiding place is about to be revealed and the money will be split between the men. But one man decides he wants it all for himself and sets in motion his evil scheme.

The Shadow and agent Harry Vincent travel to Holmsford to investigate and try and stop the killings. There's a minimum of gun play in this story but the action still moves at a good clip. FINGERS OF DEATH is a bonafide mystery novel with the identity of the killer (and a nice plot twist) being revealed at the end. The Shadow wreaks his vengeance (of course) and leaves town. Not the greatest Shadow pulp I've read but a solid and entertaining yarn nevertheless.